As you may have noticed, I've started creating and posting nail art tutorials for the flags of the world in honor of the Olympics. What I am wondering is if you would rather me post them on the blog or not post them on the blog. Either way, they'll be posted on YouTube.

I'd love to hear your feedback! Also, if you haven't seen your flag yet, let me know, and I'll add it to the list! :-D

A lot of you lovely (and handsome) readers are Brazilian/Brasilian, so how could I NOT do a Brazilian flag tutorial during my Flags of the World nail art tutorial series? My apologies for almost certainly murdering the Portuguese language in the intro!! (I tried!)

TOOT! TOOT! Next stop on the Flags of the World Nail Art Tutorial Express (hot damn that's a long name for an express train) is none other than Old Glory, the flag of the good ol' U S of A!

Though I'm sure that the majority of you lovely readers have seen the American flag nail art a zillion times, a 'Flags of the World' nail art tutorial series wouldn't really be the same without it, right?

Well here you go:

Triangle.

Oh, and can someone turn off the dawnzer? (please someone get this reference)

To further cement my status in the nerd community, I've chosen to do nail art to celebrate a very important birthday today. SUPER Important. Like kill-Voldemort-and-save-the-world important. Yes, really. It's that time of year again, July 31 (or 31 July, if you're anywhere but America), which means that it's the birthday of a beloved magical character...Harry James Potter.

If you've been reading the blog for a while, you know that I'm a bit of a fan. By bit, I mean HUGE, wait in line at midnight screenings, midnight book releases, and know the stupid books practically by heart huge. No, as I've stated before, I don't dress up. (I did screen print my own Harry-themed t-shirts for the 8th movie though) I'm not embarrassed of my Harry Potter devotion, because HP is awesome, and I think most of you will say the same.

So what would you give Harry as a birthday present? Some chocolate frogs? A broomstick maintenance kit? Socks? I'd make him a levitating cake...to say, I'd make him a cake and have Hermione levitate it. *Wingardium Leviosa!* BAM!

So, because I get requests for flags quite a bit, I decided what better time to do flag tutorials than for the OLYMPICS?! First flag tutorial—the British flag! I mean, the Olympics are in London this year...

In the comments below, post what flags you'd like to have tutorials for, and I'll do my best to make them! :)

So I'm going to be doing a series of tutorials for the Olympics, and this is the first one! :) I decided to get into the tutorial spirit, and get my ass in gear. Unfortunately my internet disagrees. It takes a full hour to upload a 4.5 minute video! Awesome right?

Anyway, I hope you like the first in my Olympics-themed Nail Art Tutorial Series!

This post is REALLY late. I know. I'm trying to get back up-to-date with blog posts after my unscheduled hiatus. This collection took a little longer to get to me, since it had to sit and wait for Chris to go to Vegas an come back. It flew over 12,000 miles (and man, are its arms tired!) to get to me, and then it sat. However, because Zoya was gracious enough to provide it to me for review, and because it, like most of Zoya stuff, is great, I'm reviewing it now. Better late than never, right? I actually swatched and photographed both Beach & Surf 3 times (on different days/weeks!) before I was satisfied with these pictures!

In all photos, the index finger is painted with only 1 coat to show the true opacity of the polish!

I'm not sure if you guys know this, but there is a sports competition of OLYMPIC proportions that starts...tonight. Will you be watching the millions of hours of television coverage that they're sure to show? Are you super excited about the opening ceremonies? From rumors I've heard, I'm SO excited. I realllly hope that they're true! I'm one of those people that pretty much only watches the opening and closing ceremonies... I know what you're thinking—She's a communist! Right?! Nah, every once in a while I'll watch the events, it really boils down to what else is on TV, and how lazy I am at that time. Horrible, I know.

Anyway, with all the Olympic fever going around, I felt the pressure to do an Olympic-themed nail design, but I knew it had to be...different. I thought about it, and came up with this:

And the non-animated version:

I love how Big Ben/Clock Tower/Elizabeth Tower turned out!

And to show you my 'registration mark' to help with lining up the animation pictures.

The Beauty Blog Coalition is at it again! We want to give one lucky reader a $400 USD gift card just for being cool! Well, just for being cool and filling out our survey. It's totally anonymous and should be quick and easy to fill out. Think of all the beauty products you can buy with $400 if you win! Woo hoo!

Important: Please only fill out the survey ONE time - even if you see it on another blogger's website. Entering multiple times will invalidate all your entries.

By entering, you agree to the official rules here. This giveaway is open to all countries. Ends August 1, 2012 at 12:01 am PST.
Enter the survey below - everyone that enters gets an equal chance to win!

Today I have a design that I did a few months ago for the Rite Aid Nail Extravaganza nail art competition. The judges were Suzi Weiss-Fischmann of OPI, Essie Weingarten of Essie, and Julie G of Julie G Beauty. Needless to say, I wanted to IMPRESS. With this design I made it to the finalist round, where I was sent a box of products that I had to use to create a new nail design. Here's the catch, I could ONLY use the tools/polishes in the box. Unfortunately this did not include A. topcoat B. a nail art brush. I did contact the PR people handling the contest to make sure I was not allowed to use topcoat or brushes, and they said if it's not in the box...no.

The kit included: a set of 5 polishes from the Jesse's Girl Julie G line, 2 Essies, a NOPI red, and 5 Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens. I spent 4 hours. FOUR. HOURS. trying to make these products work. Sure, the polishes were all AWESOME. Unfortunately not many of them coordinated, and on top of that, the lack of topcoat meant that anything I drew with the nail art pens wiped off. After several failed attempts (every time I drew something I was mildly OK with, the pen would shit on my nail and make a big splotch...there was a lot of unparliamentary language goin' on that night), I came up with something that I wasn't horribly embarrassed to submit. This round was voted on by the public... needless to say, my design didn't win. You can view the other submissions on the Rite Aid Nail Extravaganza site.

In any event, I was REALLY happy with my initial submission. I tried a new watercolor technique where I painted the shape of where the color was the boldest/most opaque, then dipped my brush in acetone and 'pulled' the color to create the other shapes.

Did you know that today is Amelia Earhart's 115th birthday? If you've been to Google today you did! :-D In honor of this inspiration of a lady, I did flying nails!

I apologize this post is super short in the ways of words, but my head hurts so bad right now I feel nauseous, and I really want to go get some sleep. However, I really wanted to get this post up on her birthday! :)

I can't take credit for the fuzzy part- I was inspired by Jen over at The Polishaholic blog! The rest of the inspiration for this nail art came from being homesick, and from being bummed about missing out on CosmoProf North America right now in Las Vegas with all my other blogger friends!! *BUMMED*

In honor of all the lovely bloggin' ladies in Vegas right now, I made Vegas poker nails!! I used green flocking for the felt, and poker chips to make the half-moons!

I decided to something simple today- just a plain silver, satin-finish manicure. Im not sure how well it turned out- maybe this is why I do crazy nail art- I mean- look at it...it's horrible. Bumpy, uneven, and I mean, look at those brushstrokes. UGH.

HA! Just kidding. While today's design/technique didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, I still thought it was a fun enough idea to share.

I dunno about you folks, but I can't resist a good instant lottery ticket—my weakness? BINGO or crossword scratch-offs. :-D (I feel like I'm getting more entertainment for my money) Since they don't have lottery in Nevada, and obviously not in India, I only get to buy them when I'm visiting my home in Michigan, and I totally have to set a limit for myself. :-D They say that lottery is a tax on the poor, but I don't really play with the expectation of winning, it's more like a slot machine handle pull or a hand of blackjack for me... purely entertainment. When I was reminded the other day on Pinterest of a tutorial I saw a few years back about making your own scratch-off tickets, I knew that I had to do a scratch-off manicure! :) To make the scratch-off finish- all you need is 1 part dish soap and 2 parts silver (or any metallic) acrylic paint.

Granted, this is kind of a single-use and VERY impractical manicure, but you know me....

Holy mix of pop culture, Batman! For those of you wondering WTF I'm talking about... yesterday was Hunter S. Thompson's birthday (if he were still alive), and I'm sure anyone with a pulse and TV knows that tomorrow is the release of the latest and greatest Batman flick–The Dark Knight Rises. To understand why these two events work so beautifully together, one must read (or at least WATCH) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. From the book:

The car suddenly veered off the road, and we came to a sliding halt in the gravel. I was hurled against the dashboard. My attorney was slumped over the wheel. "What's wrong?" I yelled. "We can't stop here. This is bat country!"

–Raoul Duke, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson

You NEED to read the book.

Anyway, I've had this Ralph Steadman (the artist who illustrated Fear & Loathing)—slash—Fear and Loathing idea on my list forevvvvver (Chris is a major major major fan), and I figured what better way to do it than a Bat Country/Batman mashup, much like my Dexter/Dexter mani named He's Got a Way With Murder. In that manicure I took the Dexter (the beloved serial killer) logo, and an illustration of him in the style of Dexter's Laboratory (the cartoon) and combined them to celebrate the beginning of a new season of Dexter. (Speaking of Dexter, could you believe the Season 6 cliffhanger?! Season 7 premiere can't come soon enough!)

If you're not familiar with the art of Ralph Steadman, it's messy and well... slightly psychotic. (and creepy awesome) The best way to understand it is by seeing this:

I did the Ralph Steadman bats on all the fingers except the middle finger, where I did the batman logo in the style of Steadman, with splatters/drips.

So there you have it. An explanation of WhyTF I did this manicure. And now, without further ado, the manicure you've all been waiting for...

And who could resist doing a Fear and Loathing manicure without taking a picture of it WITH the book. This is a First Edition of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and the first gift I ever gave to Chris!

Ever had one of those days where you start with one idea, and end up with something else? This is definitely one of those days. I started off with an ombre ombre! (Meaning that I did an ombre on each nail, and an ombre across the hand!) Now don't get me wrong, I totally liked how it looked, but I felt like it was missing something...so out came the teal. I'm not sure where this design came from in the depths of my brain, but it looks like some sort of alien DNA or space molecule structures or something. (Hence the post name) :-P

I'll be honest, I did that snazzy technique for doing sponge gradients, but this one was a bugger. The green wasn't quite opaque enough over the cream, so I had to go over and over and over and over it. (and over it again one more time) I DO like this idea of an ombre ombre though. :-D (plus it's fun to say)

So yeah, not sure if you've heard...but I currently live in India. (you know, that country you call for tech support?) I know that I haven't done a lot of India-inspired nail art, so I decided to do today's design for you! I'll admit, I first did this design on my friend Ruby, the most adorable girl that used to work in my office (I'm so sad she doesn't anymore). She's 24 years old, but looks about 14, and unbelievably to me has 2 kids!! She would always joke with me and say things were supaaah. (super). She's honestly one of my favorite people in India, she cracks me up! (and I'm not the only one- everyone likes Ruby!). She was going to her 'native' (this is how people here refer to their hometown) for her birthday, and wanted me to paint her nails, so I did! This was the design that I did for her, and I liked it so much, I decided to do it on myself.

I think I could do an entire year of black and white nail art and never get bored. The possibilities are really endless. After yesterday's manicure, I still had all the grey polishes as well as the white and black polishes on my nail table, whom I affectionately call Dave. (OK, IKEA named him Dave, but I didn't change it, because who wants a nail table with an identity crisis?!) I guess I probably could've pulled out some colors and done something different, but this idea popped into my head as I was doing some things around the house, and I couldn't seem to shake it!

I decided to try my hand (again) at a tape manicure (I generally suck at them!). Well, I discovered why I always had such a hard time with them before- SHITTY TAPE! When I was in the US, I grabbed a roll of real Scotch tape, and it seriously worked beautifully.... and then I messed it up by splattering it. (On purpose, I swear!!) I'm actually pretty pleased with this manicure- yeah, the lines aren't perfectly straight and even, but I think that along with the splatter, it works.

No, I haven't joined the 50 Shades of Grey craze, and am still undecided whether I want to bother. I hear good stuff and bad stuff, but more people that hate the series than people that love the series. I know that eventually, like all the other 'crazes', I'll end up reading them out of sheer curiosity. (Twilight, I'm looking at you) I'm so weak. WEAK. Why can't there be a craze over historic biographies? or maybe books full of bread recipes? I'd be on top of that shit. (I'd be a total book hipster and love that shiz before it went 'mainstream', ya know?)

Anyway, I digress. This manicure is dotting tool-riffic. As in, besides the base coat and cleaning up my cuticles, it's the only tool I used. I wanted to do a dot gradient manicure, and I originally planned to do it in color, but decided to scale it down... grayscale, that is. I figured after my Jagger-icure, I should do something a bit easier. Surprisingly, though technically 'easier', this took far more time than ole Mick. Funny how that works out, right?

What do you think- do you like seeing simpler manicures on here from time to time? Sometimes I feel 'weird' doing that, because I've set a precedent of doing wacky, weird, and detailed stuff for so long. Let me know, because I'm curious what you guys think!

Did you know that today, July 12, 2012, marks the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones' first gig? It is! They played on July 12, 1962 at the Marquee Club in London, England!

Growing up, I wasn't one of those 'normal' kids that listened to Debbie Gibson...oh wait, I was. However, I actually spent the majority of my radio-listening time on Oldies 96.1, and could sing the words to every damn song that came on. I think I knew (and still know) the songs of my mom's youth better than she does. :D (with the exception of Neil Diamond, she's got his songs down) Anyway, I remember one night that they were doing a Rolling Stones marathon, and I kept trying to call in my requests, but never got through. Poor kid, I was super sad.

One of my all-time favorite Rolling Stones songs and favorite songs in general is 'Paint it Black,' which I SWEAR is one of the most stick-in-your-head songs ever. I can merely read the song name, and it get stuck in my head for days. Damn them.

Do you have a favorite Rolling Stones song?

In honor of the 50-year anniversary, I chose to do Rolling Stones nail art today! I painted it black (get it?!) and then topped that with black glitter for a bit o' texture (makes me want a Bit o' Honey candy bar reaaaaal bad). Instead of art on all 5 nails, I focused on two accent nails, the Rolling Stones tongue logo on my ring finger, and the best Mick Jagger caricature I could fit on a fingernail on my thumb. :)

Now that I'm closing in on finishing my 3rd year doing this blog, I've taken some time to look back on designs that made this blog what it is. Unfortunately, there were designs that:

• I loved, but took with a crappy camera, so I have a picture that probably would've been clearer if I took it with my iPhone.
• I loved the concept for, but the execution sucked.
• Were ok to begin with, but I think I can make them better now.
• My cuticles/nails were in HORRIBLE, embarrassing, disgusting shape.

I've decided to do a new feature where I choose designs from the past every once in a while- maybe every 2-3 weeks or so? Maybe each month? and redo them the way I think they should be done NOW!

For the first of this series, I of course chose Bacon is Great! Seriously, did I have any other option for the inaugural design?!

So here you go, the design that put this blog on the proverbial 'map' — Bacon!

Growing up, there was an abundance of things to do during the summer break from school. One of of them was NOT saying 'I'm bored!' Those two words strung together were simply not allowed in my house. What did this mean? You went outside. Yes, I grew up before video game consoles were in every household (we DID have a Nintendo and B/W Gameboys as we grew older and a super awesome Texas Instruments game/keyboard thingy though), we didn't even *GASP* have cable TV. We had 4 channels: ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS, and if it wasn't on one of those channels, you didn't need to watch it. You relied on your brain and creativity to keep yourself busy. As long as the sun was out, my sister and I managed to find something outdoors to do...luckily, we grew up in the middle of a forest, so there was an abundance of things to do and discover. We shot BB guns, rode 4-wheelers (we weren't supposed to), rode bikes, built forts, hiked through the woods, played in the yard, played with the dogs, even went fishing in our neighbor's pond. Luckily, we weren't girls that were concerned with getting downright filthy. I rarely wore shoes, and could run barefoot on gravel. Anyway, one of my favvvvvorite things to do in the summers growing up was pick all the wild berries growing around the house, we had wild strawberries (which are teeny tiny), raspberries (my favorite), and wild blueberries. I loved walking through the woods, pulling berries off the bushes and popping them in my mouth, now THAT was summer. (That and begging our parents to take us for ice cream at the local ice cream parlor, Zanner's, which was in one of the oldest buildings in town.)

Because I'm feeling nostalgic and admittedly, missing home, I decided to do blueberry nail art! I used the new polish that I got as part of a Klout Perk from Essie - Bikini So Teeny, a periwinkle blue with a barely noticeable hint of silver sparkle. You may also notice that my nails are a very different shape than usual, too. :) I was bored I guess, I've had the same (or similar) nail shape for as long as I can remember - at least 10 years or more. It was time for a change, right?! I'm still undecided whether I like this new shape or not, hoping it grows on me or grows OUT fast! :) What do you think of the new shape?

Now, I usually use the padded files from CND, they're my absolute favorite. However, I recently became a part of the Tweezerman Ambassador program, and in the kit they sent were 3 different types of files (amongst some other pretty fantastic stuff, but that will come later), so I thought I'd give one of them a go. I selected the Sansational nail file, a Coarse/Medium grit file that made seriously quick work of my nail reshaping. Another great thing about this file is that is can be washed and disinfected, which is always a plus. This file is a bit too gritty for regular filing, but for reshaping, it was absolute perfection.

Disclosure: Some products in this post were provided as a Perk through Klout Perks, or were provided for consideration by the manufacturer. My opinion is my own.

So there is this wonderful, time-eating app that many of us have on our phones and post photos of things we find amusing and photo-worthy in our lives. This app is, of course, Instagram. I have fallen into it's clutches, and like quicksand, the more I try to leave, the further I get sucked in.

What's popular right now?!

Woah, what language is that?

Hey, that's pretty funny.

Nails!

Hmmm, interesting choice of filter.

Ummmm, didn't really need to see that.

Anyway, I digress... what I'm trying to say is that I'm now on Instagram... you can find me @thedailynail, and I expect all of you to follow me. Seriously, this isn't me joking. Does it look like I'm joking? OK, maybe I am, but if you think I'm cool, you should totally follow me on there. Oh, who am I trying to kid, of course you think I'm cool...right? Right?! :-P (If not, just pretend. I'm fragile.)

I post stuff like sneak peeks of my nails, my pet monkey Homer (he's actually a rat terrier, not a monkey, but I say 'When in India...'), weird things I see, things that amuse me, and other odds and ends. No boob pics, promise. I'll do my best to keep it interesting, scout's honor. (I was a Brownie, so i can say that)

Anyway, to the point of this post and what you actually came here for... the nails. To commemorate my Instagram-ness, I did Instagram nails!!

It's the fourth. Yeah, of July. Can you believe it? Seriously, I'm in shock. This trip around the sun has flown by like none other and here we are again, celebrating our day of independence! Well...you are. People might look at me funny if I was out on my lawn (we don't have a lawn) grilling burgers, don't ya think? Plus I had to work, because it's not Independence Day here! :) (I have to wait for August 15th for theirs!) Chris said he was going to 'get drunk and blow shit up', but apparently his version of that is a cool glass of water and an episode of Masterchef Australia while he surfs the interwebs on his iPad. :-D What can I say, we're an exciting pair, right?

I've been sick lately...it all started with a dirty little germ disseminator (otherwise known as a child) sitting next to me coughing without covering his gaping yaw for the entire flight from Brussels to Chennai. That was 2 weeks, 3 sick days, several days of sleeping, about 5,000,000 movies, a doctor's visit, 3 prescriptions, and one stern instruction that I wasn't allowed to eat ANY fruits (apples are allowed), or have any fruit juice. Odd for a doctor to say, right? I'm pretty sure this is the perfect way to get me to eat my fruits and veggies though, because it's all I can think about now. I guess that ole 'want what you can't have' saying might hold some truth. Anyway...

As my way to 'celebrate' being American, I did what any other sane nail-art loving blogger would do...my nails. Now, every year it gets harder and harder to do my nails, because there is only so many ways you can configure red, white and blue, right? Well, In the past, I've actually steered clear of the good ole RW&B (I'm such a rebel), and I've done the Declaration of Independence, the Statue of Liberty (not one of my finest), and the culinary treat that is a tube of meat that we all know and love called a Hot Dog... Well, this year I was inspired by a picture that my friend Roxie posted on her Instagram of her getting her Fourth of July buntings ready to hang. My goal was to try to capture the shadows of the draped/gathered/folded fabric, and still maintain that vibrant trio of colors that are synonymous with liberty.

About Me

Hi all, and welcome to my blog project. I completed my original challenge/plan to do 365 different nail designs in 365 days on October 13, 2010. I now continue to do designs as I have time because I love it! If you have any ideas, or just want to contact me, my email address is thedailynail@gmail.com